Land acquisition for Pune airport gets going

Acting on the directives from the Civil Aviation ministry, the Maharashtra government has finally initiated the land acquisition process for the much-awaited international airport project near Pune.

Planned at Shiroli-Chandoos villages and located around 45 km north of Pune along the Pune-Nashik national highway, the greenfield international airport is expected to be operational by the year 2016.

The international airport will initially focus on cargo exports as the passenger needs would be extensively served by the upcoming international airport near Panvel in Navi Mumbai, which is just 90 minutes' drive from Pune. The Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation has issued a notice to begin the land acquisition procedure.

The proposed international airport would come on 6,000 acres, which according to MIDC, is not under direct irrigation. The airport site is surrounded by industrial estates like Talegaon, Chakan and Rajgurunagar, where multinationals including JCB, General Motors, Daimler Chrysler, International Truck and Engines Corporation, Tata Motors and Volkswagen have a presence.

Two multi-product special economic zones planned by Mahindra & Mahindra and Kalyani Forge are also coming up near the airport site, which ensure that the airport initially would work as a cargo export-import hub.

The development comes a sigh of relief for the industrial community as well as the residents of Pune and surrounding regions, who had to travel to Mumbai for international operations. The present airport in Pune is governed by the Indian Air Force. The airport is presently undergoing runway re-carpeting work, which has severely affected the city's air traffic scenario.

The state government has already invited expression of interest from private agencies to conduct a techno-economic feasibility study of the new airport, which has received the green signal from the Airports Authority of India and the Defence ministry.

"By the time this airport comes up, the international airport at Panvel would be around four-year-old. Hence, the new airport will target the industrial zones around Pune and will capitalise on goods and machinery export," an MIDC official told Business Standard.

The airport would be a public-private partnership venture to be developed on the lines of international airports coming up in Bangalore and Hyderabad. The MIDC would hold 15 per cent share in the project with two or three private partners.

"Once the techno-economical feasibility report is ready, it would be forwarded to the Government of India for approval. Once we receive the go-ahead from the Centre, we will take the possession of land followed by an international bidding procedure. If things happen as per plan, the construction can start in 2011," the official stated.